The Death of Edison Hsueh in 1999 at the University of Sao Paulo

Brazil's Chinese to shoot film on student murdered in hazing


Members of the Chinese community in Brazil will shoot a film based on the true story of an ethnic Chinese student who died in a university hazing, local press reported on Friday.
It will be the first film produced by Chinese citizens residing in Brazil.

 Edison Hsueh, a 22-year-old of Chinese descent, started medical school in 1999 at the University of Sao Paulo. He was pushed into a swimming pool and drowned by veteran students who staged a hazing to "welcome" newcomers to the course, one of the most disputed in the country.



Yuan Yiping, a Sao Paulo resident for 15 years and editor of a local community newspaper, is the screenwriter of the bilingual film in both Portuguese and mandarin. He said the film aims to describe the living conditions of some 200,000 ethnic Chinese in Brazil.



"We want to show the changes following Edison's death," he sad.



Brazil's Superior Court of Justice (STJ) archived the case seven years later, with none of the accused punished.



The incident shocked the Chinese community in Brazil at the time.



"We expected the murderers to be found and punished according to law," Fernando Ou, president of the Chinese Cultural Association of Brazil, told the press on Friday.



(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2008)